Aftermath
by Allicat9
Summary: But the past is just the same-and War's a bloody game...Have you forgotten yet?...Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget. The fallen fifty of the Battle of Hogwarts finally have their stories told. PLEASE REVIEW!
1. Fiona Belmont

Fiona Belmont dies three days before her seventeenth birthday.

When Professor Flitwick asked her how old she was, she lied.

"I turned seventeen three days ago sir."

She doesn't know why she stayed. She honestly couldn't say. It wasn't as though anyone asked her about it. There really wasn't time.

She could have left. She could have. Really. She could have walked out with Mara and Erica and so many other members of her house. She had no obligation to stay.

But that is not what she did. She meant to. But when she had tried to get up, her stomach dropped. And for once in her very Ravenclaw life, Fiona did something very unintelligent. She remained in her seat.

"I turned seventeen three days ago sir."

That's all it took for Fiona Belmont to become a solider. That's all it took for a sixteen year old girl who had never even considered dueling to come face to face with dark wizards with twice her experience.

Fiona Belmont dies three minutes after the battle begins, shielding a first year (_why is he here, how is he here_) from a killing curse.

All she could think in her last moment was that her father would have been proud of her.

He was.


	2. Archibald Bennett

Archibald Bennett never planned on being a war hero. Certainly it was fair to say that the wig maker from Diagon Ally had never imagined that he would be in a battle, fighting _Death Eaters_ of all people!

Yet when he had heard that Voldemort and his followers were attacking Hogwarts, something inside him had snapped. Maybe he couldn't stand the idea of something dark touching the place that had made him happy. Maybe it was the thought of those terrible people harming _children. _Or maybe it was because he knew that his daughter would have been there in a second if she hadn't been killed by _them _nearly twenty years ago.

He apperates into the middle of a battle. Hogsmede had become a war zone. Archibald watched The Three Broomsticks burst into flames. He watched as Death Eaters transformed the doors and windows into brick walls, trapping people inside.

He felt the anger boil up inside him once more.

When people are asked about it later, they say they've never seen anything like it. A man, appearing out of nowhere, wand at the ready, stunning three death eaters before putting out the flames in the Three Broomsticks and rescuing everyone inside. Before anyone can blink (or so the story goes) the man is running up the street killing five death eaters and a giant before being hit with a killing curse.

A hero, a hero, everyone says, nodding gravely like one does when remembering the dead.

The name of Archibald Bennett goes down in history- Archibald the Giant Slayer, they call him. But when pressed not a person can remember what the man did before he became a legend. They can't quite remember the details of his life.

No one remembers the quiet wig maker who had a shop in Diagon Ally. A man mourned his only child more and more each day. And no one can remember that he was a man who greeted death with open arms and died with his daughter's name on his lips.


	3. Peter Blotting

"I'm just here to take the pictures." That's sort of Peter Blotting's tagline. Whatever the event, birthday parties, Gringotts break in, mass ghost 'protest floats', Peter was there with a camera on hand.

When Elvira left him and took the kids, she suggested that he write an autobiography _Life of Peter Blotting: I'm just here to take the Pictures._ Peter thought that was a little unfair. He was a little absent minded, sure, but his pictures were beautiful. She shouldn't have said that about his pictures.

Without Elvira and the kids, life at home had become uneventful. Peter found himself spending more and more time in the office, going out with reporters on late night assignments, anything to keep him from thinking about his ending marriage. Because even if she did insult his pictures, Elvira was the best thing that had ever happened to Peter.

On May 2nd 1998, Peter is working late at the _Prophet _again. News comes in, there's some sort of skirmish on the Hogwarts grounds. His editor turns to him "Just get a few pictures Peter, will you?" and he's off.

It turns out it's not just a skirmish, but a full blown war that has broken out at the ancient school. The reporter that was sent with him apperates away almost instantly. Peter doesn't. Instead he pulls out his wand and he drops his camera. Because right now, in that moment, he isn't there to take pictures.

Not anymore.


	4. Andrew Carmichael

Andrew Carmichael is the youngest casualty of the battle. They find his body pinned under an older Ravenclaw girl that had tried to protect him. Tried and failed.

No one can quite figure out how he managed to stay behind. He couldn't have lied about his age. He's too small for anyone to even entertain the notion that he _might _be of age. He couldn't have given the prefects the slip on the way to the Room of Requirement. At least three people claim to have seen him get into the portrait hole that lead to the Hog's Head.

In the end it doesn't matter. Andrew Carmichael is dead, and knowing how he managed to get himself that way isn't going to change that.

It falls on Minerva McGonagall to tell his parents. She arrives at the Carmichael mansion at eleven thirty the next morning and tries to ignore the unpleasant twisting in her stomach. She is let in through the front door by a house elf stands in the great room next to a picture of Andrew and waits.

His mother collapses as soon as she sees Minerva. His father just stands there nodding stiffly as Minerva relays her message. She can't look at the sobbing woman on the floor; she can barely meet the eyes of the pale, drawn man before her. She leaves after twenty minutes, brushing aside Mr. Carmichaels thanks and apperating back to the school.

Years later she is asked what she remembers most about the battle. She tells them Andrew Carmichael's death.


	5. Luca Caruso

Luca Caruso can't quite remember how it happened, but suddenly he's cornered against a wall and a masked man has his wand drawn and pressed to Luca's throat.

"Damn." Is all he can think of to say before there is a flash of green and the world rushes away.

Michael Corner finds him slumped against that wall on the third floor. He crouches, because his legs aren't strong enough to keep him standing before the body of a boy that he's known for nearly ten years.

Luca's a large guy, and it takes two of them (Michel and Anthony) to carry him to the Great Hall. They could have levitated him, but it seems disrespectful somehow.

They lay him down next to the other members of Dumbledore's Army that lost their lives. They leave him there, because there are others to gather, others to morn. There he stays until his father comes for his body that evening. Michael watches Luca's father kneel at his son's side. He watches as the giant Mr. Caruso gathers his son in his arms as though he weighs nothing at all. He watches as the man and his precious burden walk out of the Great Hall.

Michael Corner thinks of Luca Caruso every day for the rest of his life. No matter how happy he is, no matter what has happened, he links of his dorm mate, slumped against the third floor wall. It kills him a little; he's supposed to be stronger than this. He can't make the memory go away. And as he drowns himself in yet another fire whiskey, he's not sure that he should want it to.


	6. Stephen Cornfoot

There are curses flying everywhere, shouts, screams, the castle shakes, and Stephen Cornfoot is running. He is sprinting down the length of the Great Hall, shoving people out of his way, looking for _her_.

Why did she come back? He had seen her get up with the other Ravenclaws. He had seen her walk towards safety. She had looked at him, pleading. But he had remained in his seat. They had discussed this. She knew that if it came to it, he would stay and fight. He knew that if it came to it, she would keep her promise to him, and walk away.

She had broken her promise.

He had seen her, carelessly throwing herself into battle, just out of the corner of his eye. Then he had lost track of her in the confusion. When he found her again, he hadn't thought, he had just screamed her name, and then he was running.

She turned towards him, her mouth forming his name, and then she is running to meet him. He reaches out his hand, she reaches out hers, and then there is a flash of green somewhere to his left.

The last thing he sees is her eyes.


	7. Elizabeth Cornwall

Elizabeth Cornwall is from a good and noble family. That is why it is so shocking when Minerva McGonagall tells her family that she's dead.

"But that can't be right." Her father sputters. "Elizabeth, she, she would never do such a foolish, harebrained-"

"It is true Mr. Cornwall." Minerva McGonagall, stiff as a board, says coldly, "I am sorry."

Then she leaves and the Cornwalls are left to wonder at their daughter's choice.

Page Break

Elizabeth had always been a little different. Morgana had been in Ravenclaw. Richard had been in Slytherin. And Elizabeth had somehow managed to be placed in Hufflepuff.

Morgana had been excellent at Charms. Richard had been excellent at Potions. Elizabeth had been excellent at neither.

They had loved her of course, even if they didn't understand her most of the time. Elizabeth had always listened. When they had talked to her about Mudbloods, she had always nodded. When they talked to her about Pureblood supremacy, she had always smiled. Elizabeth had never given them any trouble at all.

Even now, at her funeral, surrounded by Mudbloods and Muggle Lovers who were all supposedly her friends, they thought there had to be some mistake. This girl who helped the half breed caretaker raise bowtruckles, this girl who drank Gryffindors under the table after a Hufflepuff win over Slytherin, this girl who had been in a serious relationship with a Mudblood who had been arrested during the war, this girl was not their daughter. She couldn't be.

Because Elizabeth had always listened. And if they admitted that this girl was her, it meant that they had never really known their daughter at all.


	8. Colin Creevey

Colin Creevey's brother never visits his grave. Dennis tries to go. He really does. He knows it would make his father so very happy if he went. But he can't.

He knows if he goes he will never leave. If he sees that grave, a part of him will die, and he will leave that part of himself with Colin. He cannot allow that to happen.

His parents don't understand. They are angry with him. But he does it for them, because a part of them had died, and because he knows it wouldn't be fair for them to lose two sons to the war.

After the war, Dennis Creevey goes on.

Dennis Creevey goes on to become a famous photographer for the _Daily Prophet._

Dennis Creevey goes on to marry Emma Dobbs, a muggleborn who survived Azkaban. She is the strongest person he knows. With her at his side, he can never fail.

Dennis and Emma Creevey go on to have nine children. Harry, Ronald, Ginerva, Luna, Neville, Hermione, Dennis Jr., Oliver, and George. No Colin. They name their children after the living, not after the dead.

After the war, Dennis Creevey goes on to live a full and happy life.

After the war, Colin Creevey stays in his grave and his memory does not haunt the living.

Which is how it's supposed to be.


	9. William De Winter

There is a war on, and William De Winter is not amused.

He stalks up the path towards the castle, blasting Death Eaters out of his way with a flick of his wand, intent on killing his son as soon as he finds the ungrateful little bastard for worrying his mother like this.

A Death eater luges at him from the left, William sidesteps him and hits him right in the chest with a stunner. Yes, he resolves as he steps over the body, he is going to _murder_ Nathaniel when he finds him.

William De Winter is accosted on the steps of the castle. He recognizes Rodolphus. They were children together once, distantly related, thrown together at various pureblood functions. They had been dorm mates, friends. They had sat next to one another in History of Magic. William laughs, because it's funny that they should meet after all this time, like this.

"Finally decided to come around De Winter?" Lestrange calls, drawing his wand because he already knows the answer.

"No."

"Thought not." And then they are dueling. William is pushed back, away from the castle, away from his son. He gets a hit or two in, but the Death Eater has the upper hand. He's out of practice, he realizes, and it's all William can do not to laugh because why not?

"You should have joined us De Winter!" Rodolphus calls after a particularly vicious hex that William barley blocks, "We were friends! Your family-"

"You know nothing of my family!" William says, straightening again, "Look at you! What has your service gotten you? Nothing!"

Rodolphus screams with rage, or perhaps with anguish, it is hard to tell. His next spell knocks William to his knees, and the man on the ground cannot recover quick enough to block the Death Eaters next spell.

Blood spurts from William's now opened chest. He holds his hand to it, like it will make a difference, and tries to drag himself towards the castle. He doesn't make it.

Its Neville Longbottom finds him.

"M-my son…"

"Shhhhh, shhhhh, it's alright sir, what's your name?" the Longbottom boy is pale, William notes, but his hands don't shake as he tries to calm the dying man.

"P-please, it's important he knows…."

"Knows what sir?"

"He has to go home." William whispers, because he can't manage deeper breaths, "His m-mother and I are w-worried you see."

"I'll tell him sir." Neville promises, "I'll make sure he's alright."

And somehow William believes this pale boy who can't be much older than Nathaniel.

"Thank…."

And then all is dark.


	10. Isabella Dustan

Once she believed in fairy tales.

On cold nights her mother would pull Isabella into her arms and hold her close and tell her stories. Isabella already knew about magic. Her daddy was a wizard and he said that she had magic too. But her mummy told her about a different kind of magic, one that didn't require a wand, and that needed no spell. A magic that was powered by one soul recognizing its missing parts in another.

"When you find that magic Isabella," her mother would whisper, smiling, "when you find your prince, you must hold onto him? Yes? Fight for it."

"Yes Mummy." Isabella would say, and she would cuddle closer to her mother's heart.

Once she believed that it would all be alright.

When she heard that Voldamort was back at the end of her fourth year, it was hard to be scared. Her Daddy wasn't scared and he worked at the ministry. Her mother wasn't scared because she was a muggle. And anyway, even if it was true, Dumbledore would be there to protect them.

Everything would be fine, she thought. She had nothing to fear.

Once she believed that good was stronger than evil.

She knew that Voldamort was alive, no matter what the papers said. She could feel it in her bones, smell it in the air, see it every time she caught Harry Potter's eye, read it in the ever deepening lines in Dumbledore's face. There are a few of them in her house that think so. Ravenclaw is full of skeptics, but Isabella knew their logic is flawed.

_He_ thought the same as she did. Even though she's in Ravenclaw, and he's in Hufflpuff, she had never felt more connected to anyone as she felt to Stephen.

They couldn't join the D.A. Their father's work for the ministry and it's too risky. But they undermine Umbridge at every turn, determined to make a difference where they can.

With Stephen Cornfoot at her side, they watched Umbridge run from the school. Isabella believed in that moment that there was nothing that good couldn't accomplish.

Once she believed in promises.

She promised her parents that she wouldn't fight.

She promised her friends that she wouldn't resist the Carrows.

She promised Stephen that if she could, she would always save herself.

She kept those promises. She watched her parents get taken away to Azkaban. She watched her classmates get tortured at the hands of her teachers and said nothing. She pretended that she didn't know Stephen when they had caught him recuing a third year from the dungeons.

Yes, Isabella kept all her promises, right up until it was her turn to step through the portrait to safety. And then she turned back.

Because Isabella knew she had found the missing parts of her soul and all she could do was fight for him.

Once, Isabella Dustan and Stephen Cornfoot were destined for a happy ending. Once.

They were found inches apart in the Great Hall, reaching for one another as if to embrace. Because war has a habit of erasing destinies, and 'once' is sometimes not enough.


	11. Marietta Edgecombe

Marietta Edgecombe never apologized.

When she was six, she had thrown her sister across the room in a fit of anger. She couldn't control her magic then. Her mother had demanded that Marietta apologize, bust she didn't. Laura had broken her dolly and had deserved what she got. Even if it was an accident.

When she was ten, her best friend Sara had gotten a new dress. Marietta loved that dress; it was pink and had frills all along the edges. She had begged and begged her parents to get her that dress, but they had refused. The next time Sara had worn it; Marietta hadn't been able to stop herself from pushing Sara into the mud. She hadn't apologized then because Sara had something that she didn't, and she was justified.

When she was fourteen, Cho started going with Robbie Hartman. Marietta had liked Robbie since first year, but Cho had gotten him, because Cho always got the guy. But Cho was a prude, and Marietta was no such thing. So eventually, Robbie stopped liking Cho and liked Marietta instead. Marietta had felt a little guilty when she looked into the sad, confused eyes of her friend, but then Robbie would put his hands on her hips and she never apologized because finally someone wanted her.

When she was sixteen, she told Umbridge about the DA. It was easy; she had no obligation to help rule breakers, even if Cho was going out with the worst one. There had been an unintended backlash however. Her face was scared-the word SNEAK blatantly tattooed across her face. No one wanted to talk to her after the incident, even those that hadn't been in the DA. Everyone except Cho. Cho stood by her through the entire ordeal, even though it meant losing her boyfriend and the respect of many of her peers. Her friend never complained and hardly left her side, lest Marietta be subjected to even a hint of a sneer in her absence. After Marietta told Umbridge, they were both isolated. It was all Marietta's fault. She knew it. But she never apologized.

When Voldemort came back, she wanted to help. But she was graduated by then. No one that she had been in school with- Fred and George Weasely, Katie Bell, Oliver Wood- none of them trusted her. But she still had her DA galleon. So when she felt it burn on the 2nd of May, Marietta Edgecombe went to her old school. She fought and cried alongside everyone else. Alongside them, but not part of them.

A giant kicked down part of the castles outer wall during the battle. Marietta was crushed under the debris before she could lift her wand to stop it. Just before Marietta died, she worried that those that found her would think that she was on the other side. Because she _was _a SNEAK. But she hoped, as her heart pumped for the final time, that they would know that for once, she was sorry.


	12. Sarah Fawcett

Sarah Fawcett's sister never forgave Sarah for leaving her.

Her father had left her. One day he was there, and the next day some Ministry fellow found Ben Fawcett sprawled across an alley in Muggle London. Eliza wished that her father had just done what the men in the masks had wanted.

Her mother had left her. Emma Fawcett just left their home one day and never came back. No one knew what happened to her.

Sarah had promised and promised; over and over again that she would never leave Eliza. But that was a lie.

Everyone says that Sarah was brave. Everyone says that Sarah was a hero. But all Eliza knows is that Sarah is gone. And Eliza is all alone.


	13. Mopsy Fleabert

Mopsy Fleabert was one crazy witch and everyone knew it. Rumor had it that she had once been a fierce dueling champion, but now she was just a tiny old lady who tottered around the village in oversized hats, followed by a pack of dogs.

She lived on the edge of Hogsmede village, in the same home that she had lived in all her life. She was short and small boned, with delicate features that indicated she had once been quite the beauty. Now she was covered in age spots, and her skin was covered in laugh lines, her eyes still bright, even at her age.

She had once been married to a man whose given name no one could remember, but who's surname had obviously been Fleabert. It was rumored that it was he that had had a fondness for dogs and when he passed, Mopsy had begun a collection of sorts.

The students liked her well enough. She was always willing to give out cookies to stray students and dogs alike. Her neighbors couldn't say they didn't like her. She was a sweet old lady. They did, however, have some issues with the army of dogs that followed her wherever she went. But they could not have one without the other (or _others_ as it were).

To the citizens of Hogsmede she had been an eccentric old lady who had great cookies and was too fond of dogs. They knew her as crazy old Mopsy Fleabert. And they were right. They knew that she was a little out there. But what the citizens of Hogsmede did not know about Mopsy would have filled several volumes.

They didn't know that Mopsy was not her real first name. Her Christian name had been Grace Marie Blood. Mopsy was the name her husband had given her, because he thought the way she styled her hair made it look like a mop (in the best way of course).

They didn't know that she had a family. Not just any family, mind you, but the Blood family. One of the oldest and most pure families still left in existence.

They didn't know that she had been sorted into Gryffindor House. It had been the proudest moment of her life when the sorting hat said that she belonged in the house of those that were brave and true. She had felt alive when the entire table had stood up when the hat shouted her name. She had felt like she was a part of something.

They didn't know that she had known Tom Riddle at school. She had been Head Girl during his first year at Hogwarts. She remembers telling him off for being out of bounds in the restricted section. She gave him detention. She, Mopsy Fleabert, had given the Dark Lord detention! It was almost funny now. She also remembers feeling sorry for the little orphan boy with the wide, sad blue eyes. She can't imagine how that lonely little boy she once knew caused all this suffering.

They didn't know that her husband's name was Nelson. He was a muggleborn and was constantly in awe of the magical world. She met him on the first year boats to be sorted when he got seasick and vomited in her lap. Years later he had been the Head Boy to her Head Girl. Their first time doing rounds together he tripped walking down the staircase and groped her accidently. Needless to say, she hadn't had a very high opinion of Nelson Fleabert.

They didn't know that she had fallen in love with her husband when his dog had bitten her. Everyone assumed that Nelson and Mopsy had fallen in love at school. They had been Head Boy and Head Girl together after all. But no, at school they had been nothing more than friendly acquaintances. It had been years later, when Mospy was working at St. Mungos that they had bumped into each other again in Diagon Ally. He had been walking his dog. His dog had not taken kindly to being bumped and had promptly bitten Mopsy's ankle. Nelson had been so flustered and apologetic and sweet that when he had asked her out to tea in order to make the whole thing up to her, she said yes. Needless to say her second (well, really third) impression of Nelson Fleabert was better.

They didn't know that Mopsy had wanted a child more than anything. For years she and Nelson tried. It turned out that not everything could be fixed by magic. From then on Mospy and Nelson treat the students that come down to Hogsmede as their children. She never forgets any of the ones that come to her for advice and cookies. Years later, she thinks that it might be good that she never had a child. Any child of hers would have grown up during the war. War, Nelson tells her, as they watch yet another batch of kids walk back towards the castle, is no place for children.

They didn't know that Nelson had been killed during the First War. He was a muggle born after all. One day he kissed his wife goodbye, walked out the door and never came back. Mopsy always left the porch light on for him, just in case.

They didn't know that she was a member of the Order of the Phoenix. She joined up after Nelson disappeared. He would have wanted her to fight for a better world. She was disappointed that Dumbledore let children sign up to fight. Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black. She thought that even Dumbledore should realize that war is no place for children.

They didn't know that she had never believed that Sirius Black was guilty. Sirius had always come to her house for cookies and to play with her dogs when he was at school. He had even brought that Marlene girl once or twice. She had seen him during battles, fighting the Death Eaters so fiercely. She had seen him die a little after he heard about the McKinnon massacre. She had let him sit in her kitchen and play with her dogs for many nights after that. They had loved him. She knew that animals can always tell a person's true heart. Her dogs had loved Sirius Black, so she knew he couldn't be guilty.

They didn't know that she had convinced Aberforth to go to his brother's funeral. She knew there was no love between them, but family was family and that was that.

They didn't know that Mopsy Fleabert died deflecting a spell away from a terrified Draco Malfoy.

They didn't know that she did it because he was only a child. And war is no place for children.


	14. Justin Finch-Fletchley

There was a mass breakout from Azkaban three hours and thirty seven minutes before the Battle of Hogwarts.

Block 17 of the Mugglborn wing gets loose. Someone didn't check all of the new arrivals coming in. Apparently someone had an extra wand up their sleeve. Before the gates can shut, twenty three muggleborns are out of the prison and on the run.

Justin Finch-Fletchley is among them. When he first stumbles out of the prison with his twenty three fellows after defeating the shocked ministry workers that had tried to lock them in again, he can hardly believe how beautiful the cold sea air feels against his face. He has no sense of time. He doesn't know how long it's been since he went before the Ministry Council in September and was sentenced for life for being a wizard.

All he knows is that he's cold and he has a wand. So he decides to go home.

It's a stupid plan. Hogwarts is, after all, the place that turned him in for being a muggleborn. He knows that Snape (the traitor) runs it now. He knows this.

But he is tired. So tired. And he's cold. And he has a wand. So he apperates.

When they find him, it takes three days to identify him. No one recognizes the skeleton boy in the grey rags with no shoes who was found surrounded by the two Death Eaters he killed. It's Susan Bones who finally recognizes him by a birth mark on his left wrist. She becomes so hysterical when she realizes it's him that it takes two sleeping draughts and four days in St. Mungos for her to recover.

Justin's parents, his father that was so excited to have a magical son, his mother who wanted so badly for her son to go to Eaton, are told that their son died a hero's death. They are not told that he spent the last eight months of his short life in a prison that made nightmares seem pleasant. They are not told that he was completely unrecognizable when he was found. They are not allowed to see his body. The wizarding world cannot bear to tell Mr. and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley that their world failed their son so completely.

The magical world is not yet ready for that truth.


	15. Ambrosius Flume

Honeydukes closed down after the Battle. Some said it was because little Beatrix Flume couldn't run the place without Ambrosius. Others said business was too slow. The candy store was sorely missed by the student's in the castle, but they were often so concentrated with re-building and re-learning that the little candy store was forgotten.

Beatrix closed the store because she was angry at the world for taking her husband away from her. He hadn't wanted to go. He was supposed to stay with her, in their store, as he had for more than four decades. But he was gone. And it was all their fault.

Beatrix re-opened the store because she was angry. She was angry at the world for forgetting her husband, so she began to make candy again.

But this time it wasn't the same. It was sweet sure, but it had a bitterness to it, a heaviness that hadn't been there before. No one could ever put their finger on what it was. But it was there. It was heavy. It lingered.


	16. Daphne Greengrass

Astoria meets her husband at her sister's wake.

She doesn't know it at the time of course. All she sees at the time is a pale boy with a drawn face and old eyes.

They don't speak. Astoria watches him though, from beside her parents.

She watches him approach her sister's coffin. Her sister's closed coffin. Daphne jumped from a eighth story window. Her body was broken beyond recognition.

She watches him place one, pale, boney hand on her sister's white coffin. She sees him speak. She can't hear him. She's too far away. She imagines he says something kind though. He looks sad enough when he turns away to have said something kind.

Pansy Parkinson is wailing in her ear. Astoria tries to feel bad. She tries to feel bad for all of Daphne's classmates that fill the pews. They are sad. But they weren't there. They let her sister try and make it back to the common room alone. They didn't try and protect her.

But _he_ was there. Astoria knows that he was there during the battle. It was all over the _Prophet. _His whole family was there. Astoria wonders what it must be like to be hated, as she watches the ministry officials on either side of him lead him away from the coffin and back to his chair. She wonders if he feels as alone as she does.

Astoria bumps into him after the funeral. Maybe on accident, maybe a little on purpose. The ministry officials size her up, and she stares back at them, unblinking. They cannot scare her, nothing can anymore.

She turns to him, "I know you were there."

He looks at her for a second, and looks away.

"I know you found her body. I know that you told them it was her."

Astoria knows this because no other Slytherin was there; no other student had spent as much time with Daphne as the boy before her.

"Yes." it's a whisper, but he answers her.

"I just wanted to say thank you." He looks up at her quickly, as though he can hardly believe his ears. She can hardly believe her words.

The ministry officials lead him away. Astoria watches them go.

Five years later, Astoria Greengrass marries Draco Malfoy. This time, he thanks her.


	17. Victoria Forbisher

Victoria Forbisher had two brothers and three sisters.

For six years she slept in a dormitory across the hall from Hermione Granger.

Fay Dunbar was her best friend. Sometimes they would sneak into the kitchens after hours and have the house elves make them brownies.

Her mother named Victoria after a muggle queen because she was her mother's first child, and the strongest little baby her mother had ever seen.

Victoria had long blonde hair that came down to her waist. Sometimes she would pull it back. Other times she wouldn't.

She was the only person in her year to get an O in Defense apart from Harry Potter.

She was her father's favorite child. Fathers aren't supposed to have favorites, but she was his. He checked on her every night when she was little, and every night when she came home for the summer. After she's gone, he falls asleep in her room more times than not.

Victoria never liked Hermione Granger. She didn't know why, she just didn't.

Roger Davies asked her out once. She turned him down before he even finished the sentence. She had pride after all.

She took the NEWT level Care of Magical Creatures class, one of three who did. She ends up being one of Hagrid's favorite students (after Harry's lot of course).

Victoria dreamed of being a mum. She loved children-she loved their laughs and silly stories and ability to get into all kids of trouble. She had a plan-graduate, get a job in the Dept. of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, meet a nice bloke, settle down and have a mess of children.

During the battle, Victoria helped Oliver Wood fight off an army of dementors. She guided a couple of fourth years that had gotten lost on the way to the room of requirement to safety. During the battle, Felcio Gibbon set an entire classroom on fire with three people trapped inside. Victoria killed him. Victoria Forbisher cried over the body of a Death Eater.

Anton Dolohov kills Victoria Forbisher without even a cursory glance.


	18. Shimmy Hardoteer

Seamus "Shimmy" Hardoteer was the best broom brakes salesman in the business. Well second best. Ok third. Or fifth. Ok, Shimmy Hardoteer was the eighth best broom brakes salesman in the business. But his prices were fair and he did do a fair bit of business with professional Quidditch teams. And by 'teams' he meant the Chudley Cannons.

Shimmy Hardoteer was a bit of a ladies man. By 'a bit' of course he meant not at all, and by 'ladies' he meant cat.

Shimmy Hardoteer was a failure, really. Being the eighth best broom brakes salesman in the business doesn't exactly bring in a lot of fame and fortune. Being a fifty six year old confirmed bachelor and proud owner of one very fat cat doesn't exactly bring in the ladies.

The one thing that Shimmy was proud of, really truly proud of was his sister, Felicity. Felicity had been his baby. His parents had been too busy fighting each other to really raise either of them properly, so Shimmy had thrown all his efforts into raising Felicity right. He had been so proud of her when she had been sorted into Gryffindor (even though he wished she had been sorted into Hufflepuff with him). He had beamed when she had showed him her prefect's badge. He had given her away at her wedding and wasn't ashamed to admit that he had cried the whole way through the ceremony. When Felicity had told him, her hands shaking and blue eyes shining with happiness, that she was pregnant, Shimmy had been ecstatic. His little baby sister was all grown up and having children of her own.

But then the War happened. And little Felicity (who was not so little anymore), was in danger. That fool husband of hers was running around with Dumbledore's crowd and he was going to get Felicity and the baby killed. Shimmy told him so. Bruce Alexander was nothing if not an arrogant sod, and he didn't pay Shimmy a bit of mind.

The baby was born May 2nd 1981. They named him Christian because Bruce was a muggle born and apparently muggles named their babies after daft things like religion. Within three months, Felicity is dead.

Shimmy blames Bruce. If Bruce hadn't been in all that Order business, Felicity would be alive. If Bruce Alexander wasn't a muggle born, Felicity would have had nothing to fear from the army of darkness that was sweeping Britain. But he really knows that it is all his fault. He was a failure in everything except for being a good big brother to Felicity. And then he failed at that too.

Bruce and Christian leave for France shortly after Felicity's murder. Then, suddenly, on October 31st 1981 it was over. Bruce came back, Christian in tow, and Shimmy vowed that his baby sister's child would never want for anything. He kept his promise. He would not fail again. When Christian was five, he bought the boy his first broomstick. Christian was sorted into Ravenclaw; Shimmy sent him a letter that was nearly three feet long congratulating him. In Shimmy's opinion, Christian was the best, smartest, most talented kid in Hogwarts, and maybe the world.

Then Voldemort was back. Bruce Alexander disappeared three weeks into Christian's sixth year and suddenly Shimmy was not only an uncle but also a parent of sorts. Then things got so much worse. Dumbledore was dead (the old fool) and Hogwarts was mandatory for every school aged kid. Reluctantly Shimmy sent Christian back to school in 1997 with a warning-stay out of trouble.

For Christian's eighteenth birthday, he planned to surprise him at school. He planned to take the seventh year (who had so much on his plate what with Voldemort back and all) and take him around muggle London. But when he arrived, he was detained. Hogwarts was preparing for battle, he was told, and all students had been sent via the Hogshead to Wistman's Wood to await pick up from their parents. So Shimmy went to Wistman's Wood. And Christian wasn't there.

It was there, surrounded by students crying for their parents and parents screaming for their children that Shimmy learned that not all students had elected to evacuate. That many of the above age students had stayed to fight. He knew that Christian had stayed (because Christian was so like his mother and maybe his father too).

Shimmy apperates back to Hogwarts. Because that day was his only nephew's birthday, and eighteen was too young to die. Shimmy vowed that he would not fail Felicity, that he would protect her son. He kept his promise.

He found Christian in the hallway to the North Tower bleeding from the head, draped over a younger girl, using his body to shield her from whatever horrible curse the masked man standing over them is going to use.

He shoved the Death Eater down the stairs. He hit the fallen man with a stunner just to be sure. He turned to his nephew. He watched the boy's eyes light up.

"Uncle Shimmy!"

He smiled at the boy, and then happened to glance out the tower window. Suddenly there was a roar from above, a guttural in human roar, and the world around the three of them shattered.

"Uncle Shimmy!"

He fell.

"Uncle Shimmy!"

Into darkness. But he did not fail.

Seamus "Shimmy" Hardoteer was the eighth best broom brakes salesman in the business. But he was the best uncle that ever lived according the Christian Alexander. That was how he was remembered, as a man who sacrificed everything for a child. It turned out that many people didn't think he was such a failure after all.


	19. Kenneth Hastings

"Have you seen this girl?"

Ginny Weasely looks up from where she's crouched behind the statue of Bridget Baston on the third floor. Screams can be heard from above and the entire castle shakes. Ginny thinks wildly that she must be in a nightmare _because it wasn't supposed to be like this_!

"This girl, have you seen her?" the man before her (young, maybe in his mid-thirties) shoves a photograph into her face. Ginny shakes her head to get her eyes to focus in on the image. The girl in the photo is young, maybe twelve and smiling at the camera as she swings back and forth on a makeshift play set.

She looks back at the man. "No, I'm sorry I haven't seen her."

The man's shoulders slump for a moment, but then he seems to pull himself together and runs down the stairs towards the Entrance Hall.

Ginny closes her eyes. She hopes he finds who he's looking for.

Page Break

"Have you seen this girl?"

Luna Lovegood looks up at a man that can't be more the forty at most. He seems upset, which isn't odd given the circumstances. She looks at the picture that he has in his trembling hand. A little girl, maybe twelve, smiles back at her.

Luna looks out over the rows and rows of dead that are laid out in the Great Hall during this brief reprieve that Voldemort has inexplicably given them. She would remember seeing a body that small.

"No. I haven't seen her here."

The man looks relived (of course he is, his daughter isn't dead yet) and walks quickly away, over to where Madam Pomfrey is tending to the wounded.

Luna closes her eyes before turning back to the lifeless body before her. She smooths Fiona Belmont's hair and wishes that the man doesn't find the girl here, among the ruin that was once her home.

Page Break

"Have you seen this girl?"

Molly Weasely looks up at a man who has the worried eyes of a father. She looks at the picture he holds out to her. A little girl in a green dress grins at her and twirls around before getting on a swing. She shakes her head. Fred used to smile like that little girl.

The man's face falls, if that were possible, he already seems so worried.

"Thank you." He sighs, dejected, "and I'm sorry for your loss."

He walks away and Molly starts crying again. She prays that he finds his daughter before the little girl is gone like her Fred.

Page Break

"Have you seen this girl?"

Hannah Abbott looks up at the man who pulls her to her feet. There are curses flying all around them and the man has to scream in her ear to be heard. She looks down at the picture he is holding. A little girl with wide brown eyes and a smile that could light up a room waves back at her. They have to jump out of the way as a blasting curse hits the wall three feet above where they are standing.

"NO!" she shouts at him and he nods and runs away.

She guesses that he will never find his daughter in this mess.

Page Break

"Have you seen this man?"

Hermione Granger looks at the photo that the sad little woman before her holds up for her to see. A man with brown hair and a handsome face, no older than thirty five, smiles back at her, his arms around the woman and two children, a girl that's around Hogwarts age, and a boy around five or six.

Hermione sighs, "Yes I have. This way please."

She leads the woman down the path of the fallen, through the Great Hall towards the end of the chamber, where the most recently found bodies lay. They ran out of sheets after thirty one, so the body of Kenneth Hastings is on display for anyone to see.

The woman moans and sinks to her knees, throwing herself onto her husband's still chest.

"He thought Abby was still at school." She sobs, "He didn't know that she'd been evacuated."

Hermione nods, because that is all she can do.

"I'm sorry."

The woman doesn't acknowledge her. Hermione walks away, out of the hall, out on to the grounds. She sits out there for a very long time and cries and cries and cries.

Because Mrs. Hastings found what she was looking for.


	20. Oakden Hobday

_**Proper credit to Miss. Jill Murphy, author of the wonderful novel THE WORST WITCH for the name of the Charm School. Oakden Hobday was one of the names JKR considered for a D.A.D.A teacher during Harry's fifth year. I always thought it was interesting. Please read and leave a review. I love hearing from my readers!**_

Oakden Hobday came _this close_ to landing a job at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dumbledore was all set to hire him and then that ministry wretch came from nowhere and stole it from him!

Oakden had always wanted to be a teacher, a _defense _teacher to be exact. He had loved Hogwarts, with its interesting history and long endless hallways filled with the memories of those that had walked and lived and loved there before.

But it just turned out not to be in the cards for him. Of course Dumbledore had offered him the job the year that the minister decided to interfere with the ancient school. It hadn't worked out in the Ministry's favor when all was said and done. Oakden had taken a small bit of pleasure in that. But when he re-applied for the next year, the position was already filled. Needless to say, it had been disappointing experience all around.

So Oakden went back to teaching the youngest witches and wizards at Miss Cackle's Academy for Young Witches. It wasn't even close to what he wanted to do. Basically he just had to stop five year olds from blowing each other up. But it was something.

Oakden would stop by Hogwarts every so often. He would always ask if the position was open. Dumbledore always smiled, but said no. In 1997, Dumbledore died, and suddenly nothing was the same. Hogwarts was controlled by Death Eaters, and Defense had become the Dark Arts class, according to Oakden's nieces.

But Oakden Hobday was no hero. He would still stop by the school and look at it from a far, pretending that he was a teacher at the dark school. He was in the Leaky Caldron on the night of May 2nd 1998, when suddenly the pub burst into flame. He knew nothing of the battle. All he knew that night was that the pub was on fire and everyone inside was pushing and shoving and screaming, clawing at each other, trying to get away from the flames. He was one of them.

He pushed a woman out of the way as he desperately tried to get to the door, only to discover that it had been bricked up by the Death Eaters he could hear laughing outside the bar. He clawed at one of the bricked up windows until the tips of his fingers were worn through, until blood dripped down his arms.

His robes caught on fire, and suddenly, all that work, all the studying came to naught. Oakden couldn't think of a single spell that would put out the flames now eating the legs of his pants, searing his skin. His mind emptied of everything except for the blinding pain, the screams of the others trapped in the bar, the smell of burning flesh and the animal need to escape.

Thanks to the quick wand work of a wig maker, everyone in the pub escaped from the burning building alive. Oakden was dragged from the fire by one of the bartenders and the woman he had pushed over.

He died in the burn unit of St. Mungo's three days later.

**Oakden is not a bad person. He is just a person. How many of us would react the same way in such circumstances. Most likely more than a few. **


	21. Geoffrey Hooper

Free will is an illusion. This notion that everyone has control over their own mind and actions is the greatest lie that our society engrains in our children.

That night, that terrible night, my son had no choice. He was bullied and coerced and lied to. And now my son is dead.

My son, my son, was lied to his entire life. He was told that he was brave. He was told that he was noble. He was told that in his class, among his peers, his house was the true house. His belonging to his house made him a king among commoners. He was told that it was his job to protect those that were less than him. That was a lie. He was a child. He was not responsible for anything or anyone that night.

But it was too hard for him to fight against what he had been told his whole life. He didn't have all the information when he made his choice that night. He couldn't have. He was only told one side of the story that night. He was told only one side of the story his whole life. He was pushed into an ideological assumption that he couldn't really understand. That he couldn't possibly understand.

He was not the only one who was lied to. No. He was but one among many. They lied to all of those children that night. They promised those children a new world. They promised them glory. They promised them freedom. And what have those promises? Nothing has. I don't know about you. All I have is a dead child. What about you?

Nothing has come of all this death! Nothing! What had happened except a ruined society? A new persecution!

You might scoff, you might! We are better! You might say, We are better now than we have ever been! The Dark Lord is banished, gone for good, and his followers are on the run!

But is that good? Is that what we want? Sure, it's true that the Dark Lord went a little far in his method. It's true that people did suffer under his régime. But now? Now all the old blood has been purged from society. All of our values are gone! Now a muggle child means the same, has the same value as our children. We have to live in secrecy and fear and yet they tell us that we must protect and love the muggles!

It is because of the muggles and mudbloods that some of us no longer have our children. It's because of the muggles and mudbloods that houselves are demanding to be paid. It's because of muggles and mudbloods, the idea that they hold a candle to the worth of our own children that we suffered through two wars at all.

My son was lied to his whole life. He was told that muggles and mudbloods mattered as much as him. That simply wasn't true. I told him that lie. I believed it once.

But I won't be blind any longer. Those _people_…those_ things_ are the reason that he is dead! And the worst part is that only a few of us can see it. I urge you to take off the blinders and see what our values have degraded into! I urge you to remember those babies that were lied to and murdered because of that degradation! I urge you to stand up for what is right.

Purity and truth come at a price. Remember the dead and what they died for. It was a lie.


	22. Mafalda Hopkirk

Mafalda Hopkirk. August 3rd 1938-May 2nd 1998. Beloved Wife, Sister, Mother.

Hermione Granger stared at the grave before her in silence. She had come to the graveyard to say something, anything, to the woman lying beneath the ground where she stood.

When Hermione had learned that Mafalda Hopkirk had died in the Battle of Hogwarts, she had been horrified in a way that she couldn't explain to the others. Ron had been terrified when she had burst into tears in the middle of lunch a few days before. She almost smiled as she remembered the look of bewilderment on his face when she told him that she was crying because she found out Mafalda Hopkirk had died.

"Did you know her?" he asked. He didn't even remember that Hermione had been her when they had invaded the Ministry nearly a year before.

Hermione had paused. "No." And then she had continued crying.

She had missed the funeral by months. Now it was nearly November. Hogwarts was back in session. Harry and Ron were both working for the Ministry, tracking down the Death Eaters that had escaped the final battle. She was preparing to take her NEWTS. She had a job, a boyfriend, a life.

Yet she stood in front of Mafalda Hopkirk's grave.

The crunching of leaves alerted her to another's presence in the grave yard. An old wizard, bent with age, paused beside her. Hermione didn't look at him, she kept her eyes on the grave stone before her. The man sighed as he read the dates on the grave.

"Pity." He said. "Did you know her?"

"No." Hermione answered. Then she turned and walked out of the graveyard.


	23. Meghan Jones

Hestia Jones finds her daughter's body.

The battle, mercifully, stopped. The Death Eaters retreated into the Dark Forrest. Harry Potter was ordered to surrender. The dead waited to be collected.

She finds Meghan slumped over a suit of armor on the second floor. She didn't even realize the body was her daughter's until she unceremoniously flipped the girl onto her back. Meghan's lifeless brown eyes stared up at Hestia's blue ones. She doesn't remember much after that.

By all accounts she was calm. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She apparently carried her daughter's body to the Great Hall herself. That's what they tell her.

But when she comes to, she is sitting in a hallway just outside the Great Hall, staring at the opposite wall. She is surprised to find that she has no tears on her face.

Hestia had never considered the idea that Meghan would stay behind. She hadn't known that Meghan had fought in the battle that she had just finished herself. Looking back, she should have expected it. Meghan is…was an eighteen year old Gryffindor whose mother was in the Order. Of course Meghan would fight.

Hestia fights the last half of the battle when it comes. Then she goes home, makes herself some tea, and gets into bed. The house is silent, like it always is when Meghan is at school. But this silence is different. It is permanent. Meghan was her only child. And Meghan is never coming home.

Hestia cries.


	24. Susan Li

Susan Li was a Hufflepuff student.

Susan Li was a wonderful Hufflepuff student.

By all accounts, Susan Li was a wonderful, kind, and brave Hufflepuff student.

Pomora Sprout sighed heavily and looked down at her work. The normally vivacious and verbose Herbology teacher had finally found herself at a loss for words. What could she say about a girl that nobody seemed to know very well at all? The only thing that she knew about Susan was that the girl was reasonably gifted and in her house.

Susan's parents were dead. Minerva had gone to the Li residence shortly after the battle only to discover that no one had lived there since the previous summer. The Ministry listed Dae Li as 'abroad' aka 'murdered' and Chelsea Li as 'imprisoned for spreading seditious libel against Ministry officials' aka 'telling the truth and getting thrown into Azkaban'.

When Minerva had gone to Azkaban to talk to Mrs. Li, she found that the poor woman had expired shortly before New Year's.

Susan Li was also (unhelpfully) one of those children who managed to be everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. She was a good student, not a great one. She was in Gobstones, but not a star player. She went to Quidditch games, but never played. She never lost points for her House, but never won them either. Susan was completely and utterly average.

Pomora felt bad for thinking about a dead child that way, but it was true. She was expected to give a speech at Susan's funeral and couldn't think of a thing to say about her. Pomora sighed and looked down at her paper once more.

"Is something wrong Pomora?" Pomora looked up at Minerva, who was busy at another desk, writing letters to bereaved families.

"Oh, nothing, I just can't think of anything to say at one of my student's funerals." Pomora winced at how blasé that phrase had become, "She was just a very ordinary girl. I think I will take a break and come back to it, I need some time outside."

When Pomora was gone, Minerva stood and went over to her companion's desk. She looked at the last line Pomora had written and then picked up the quill.

_By all accounts, Susan Li was a wonderful, kind, and brave Hufflepuff student, like many others. She was ordinary in every way, but on May 2__nd__, she showed the world that she was extraordinary brave, extraordinarily kind, and extraordinarily loyal. For that we must thank her. _


	25. Nymphadora Lupin

Nymphadora Lupin died a hero's death. Because of that, no one remembered her.

She became the symbol of the Second War. The brave mother who laid down her life so that all children, not just her own could live in a brighter, better world. That was true.

They called her brave, kind, just, wise, compassionate, beautiful, unique, talented. Some of that was true. Some of it was not.

But even though just some of that was true, that was the woman that was preserved in the history books. She wasn't as famous as Lily Potter or Hermione Granger but Nymphadora Lupin had her page.

No one remembered Tonks. No one remembered the awkward, acne covered teen who stumbled into class every day, more often late then not. No one remembered that she only like mashed carrots on Tuesdays, or that she loved rainy days the best but sunny ones more. No one remembered the time that she got in a screaming match with Charlie Weasely in the middle of the Great Hall. No one remembers her countless detentions, her braces, her unpopularity.

The history books don't say that she almost failed her auror training. They don't record that Mad Eye Moody tutored her in stealth every night for six weeks and that even then she barely passed.

Those books don't say that sometimes she curled up in bed in the middle of the night and screamed and cried and raged at the world. Or that she was sometimes scared out of her mind. Or that sometimes during the war, she considered taking Teddy and running far, far away.

History doesn't record that her last words to her killer were "Please, dear god, please I have a son!"

No. Those books don't say any of that. They enshrine Nymphadora Lupin's memory and regard their creation as truth. They don't care that the Nympadora Lupin they created is a very different woman from Tonks. It doesn't matter.

Nymphadora Lupin shines through the pages of history and on the faces of monuments, reminding all who see her name of self-sacrifice and unquestioning bravery.

Tonks fades from the pages and her memory bleeds out and vanishes.


	26. Remus Lupin

Werewolf Rights Legislation Proposed Five Years After the of the Battle of Hogwarts

By: Erin Thompson, Columnist, Daily Prophet

In an unexpected and controversial call to action, the Deputy Head of Magical Law Enforcement and Junior Speaker to the Wizengamot Miss. Hermione Jean Granger (Order of Merlin First Class) has introduced a bill on the Wizengamot floor that would ban job discrimination against half breed creatures such as half vampires, half giants, werewolves, centaurs, and merepeople.

The bill makes special mention of werewolves, stating that the employers of such creatures would no longer have to display that they have a werewolf working on the premises.

The bill, entitled the Anti-Werewolf Discrimination Act and nicknamed the Lupin Doctrine had made its way through committee and will be debated in the Wizengamot on Thursday.

As expected, the bill has caused uproar in the wizarding community.

Greg Aldren, a local broom shop owner commented on the issue, "Why can't ordinary people not be informed that there is a damn lyco on at the restaurant they are eating at with their family? People have to be informed that there is a dark creature around their children!"

Nancy De Winter agreed, "My god, what next? If we let this through they'll be saying that we have to let wolves live in the same neighborhoods as us!"

It should be mentioned that this is not the first time that Granger has tried to get legistlation that crimmanalizes discrimination against werewolves passed. She first tried three years ago and was memorably laughed out of a subcommittee meeting.

Many are shocked that the bill was able to pass though the lower branches of the legislature.

"Look, I think that Lupin fellow was nice." Earl Morgan said at Tom's Pub, "But are we going to let lycos into our children's schools just cause one of them wasn't a psycho?"

It remains to be seen whether the bill will gather enough support to make it though the House. Notably, Harry Potter has thrown his support behind the bill. Some wonder if that will be enough to push a bill as controversial as this though the Wizengamot.

UPDATE:

The bill was defeated in a vote, 17-83.


	27. Dominic Maestro

_Dominic Maestro_.

The name looks beautiful against the gold plating of the memorial. The name _is_ beautiful, musical even. That is what Karen Maestro had thought when she first heard it yelled across the Ravenclaw Common Room all those years ago.

Dominic was just as beautiful as his name. Dark black hair, a little long so it hung down in his eyes, a lean but toned body, tall but not gangly, his eyes the color of a storm. Karen smiled as she remembered how she had thought of him when she was young as she stared at her husband's name. He had been so lovely then.

He had been older then her, by three years. She had thought she was the luckiest girl in the world when he had asked her out. Imagine her, plain, chubby little Karen McMillian, asked out by the strong, handsome, brilliant Dominic Maestro; it had been too good to be true.

Their first date, he showed her that he could play the piano. He took her to a music shop in Hogsmede, sat down and played and played, his long, thin fingers flying across the keys. She had fallen in love with him right there and then. Now that she thought about it, he probably knew it to.

He had kissed her that night, outside their Common Room. She thought then that their life would be perfect together. For a while, it was.

At the end of that magical first year, Dominic graduated. She had been so happy for him. He had gone on a trip around the world with one of the premier magical orchestras. It was a wonderful opportunity for him. He wrote her nice, long letters, the kind that every girlfriend longs to receive. She wrote back to him eagerly, hanging on his every word.

At the end of that year, he came back to England. He asked her to marry him. She had agreed. They had a small wedding in a small chapel by the sea. He was nineteen, she was sixteen. She never ended up finishing Hogwarts.

The muggle world was in turmoil that first year that they were married. Some German muggles had gotten the idea that dropping bombs on London was a good idea. Karen and Dominic had sent many nights in muggle sewer drains, waiting out the German raids. At the same time, Grindawald was marching on England, Dumbledore was refusing to confront him, and Grindawald's armies seemed poised to take over the ministry. Though it all, Domenic was at her side.

In 1945, Grindawald was defeated. Karen discovered she was pregnant, and Domenic's career took off. Karen was so excited about their new life together, she hardly noticed when Domenic's request became more like demands, or that her friends started to drift further and further away.

Fermata was born in December of was born a year and three days later. Harmony, Marcato , Trilla, and Octava soon followed. Karen had six children in ten years, a difficult task made even more difficult by her husband's increasing need to control every aspect of her life.

Her clothes, her food intake, her hairstyle, Domenic had a say in all of it. Karen had always been a passive woman, and she had never questioned her husband's decisions. But then the money stopped, Domenic's career started to dry up. Musical tastes changed in the 1960s, and Domenic's talents were no longer desired. It was then that the beating started.

They would happen every night, sometimes in the morning as well. Karen tried to keep her children in the dark about what was going on. She tried to cover her bruises. She tried to muffle her screams. For thirty years she had lived under the tyranny of a man who's hands had turned from instruments of joy to tools of pain.

And now it was all over.

_Domenic Maestro. _

She gazed at the name. In some ways she was sad that the name was on the memorial. Domenic was not the man that her neighbors and friends thought he was. Or perhaps he was that man, but he wasn't always that man.

Perhaps it was good that his name was on the memorial. This way, people would remember the brave man who played the piano and loved his children. This way, the man that they imagined Dominic Maestro would not be shattered as hers had been so many years ago.


End file.
